In recent years, advances in technology, as well as ever evolving tastes in style, have led to substantial changes in the design of automobiles. One of the changes involves the complexity of the electrical and drive systems within automobiles, particularly alternative fuel vehicles, such as hybrid, electric, and fuel cell vehicles. Such alternative fuel vehicles typically use an electric motor, perhaps in combination with another actuator, to drive the wheels.
Many of the electrical components, including the electric motors, used in such vehicles receive electrical power from alternating current (AC) power supplies. However, the power sources (i.e., batteries) used in such applications provide only direct current (DC) power. Thus, devices known as power inverters are used to convert the DC power to AC power, which often utilize several of switches, or transistors, operated at various intervals to convert the DC power to AC power.
In recent years, “z-source” inverters have been developed which have several advantages over conventional power inverters. For example, due to the impedance source (e.g., including one or more inductors) included therein, z-source inverters have the ability to produce an output voltage that is greater than or less than the voltage of the DC power provided. However, conventional methods, such as Pulse Width Modulation (PWM), used to control the switches within the inverters cause a ripple current to pass through the inductors with a relatively low frequency. As a result, very large and expensive inductors must be used in such power inverters, as the required size of the inductors is proportional to the frequency of the ripple current.
Accordingly, it is desirable to provide a method and system for converting DC power to AC power that allows for the use of smaller and less expensive inductors. Furthermore, other desirable features and characteristics of the present invention will become apparent from the subsequent detailed description and the appended claims, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings and the foregoing technical field and background.